Abstract

Sliding discharge along the surface of dielectric is a relatively new source for the excitation of high-pressure gas mixtures. Up to now this type of the discharge was used as a preionizer in CO₂ and excimer lasers [1] and also for direct pumping of N₂ [1] and HF [2] lasers. In this work, to the best of our knowledge, we report for the first time about direct excitation of excimer laser gas mixtures by a high current sliding discharge. Lasing with the pulse energy of 0.12 mJ and repetition rate up to 1kHz has been obtained for XeCl and KrF excimers without special gas circulation.

© 1998 IEEE